Harry Potter and the Year of Lies
by dreams of sanitY
Summary: Harry returns a little early to Hogwarts, only to find that some may not return at all. While there, he finds a key to a door in his past, but does the key really fit the lock?


–Chapter One–

Harry didn't know what to do. Everyone seemed to be telling him the same thing: act as though everything were normal. He gazed out his window at the inky blackness studded with diamonds. How could he? How could he ignore the fact that Voldemort was steadily and speedily gaining power? How could he ignore the news, muggle and wizard, of the death toll that was slowly beginning to rise? How could he ignore his entrance into the Department of Mysteries? How could he ignore his godfather, Sirius Black's death?

Harry was not what one would call a normal child, either in the wizarding world or the nonmagic world; for the past five years he had been attending Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, unknown to him till a very large stranger called upon him and introduced him to his late parents' world. Just last year, he had raced unthinking into the Ministry of Magic, into the Department of Mysteries, believing his godfather Sirius Black was in mortal peril. Yet it was a trap, a trap set by Lord Voldemort, one of the greatest and most terrible wizards in history. Now his godfather was dead, and Voldemort was supposedly searching endlessly for Harry.

Harry sank slowly onto his bed, still waiting for his snowy owl, Hedwig to return. Even though she had only been away for a day, Harry was nervous and jittery.

'I've got to stop worrying. It only makes attachment stronger. And look where attachment got me,' Harry thought gloomily.

He glanced at his clock. 4:02 A.M.. The Famous Harry Potter was now sixteen years, four hours and two minutes.

'Sweet sixteen.' Harry sighed. It didn't seem so sweet to him.

At that moment, a bulky, fluttering, dark object in the moonlit sky caught his attention. Harry's heart rose; Hedwig!

Though as the dark shape fluttered nearer, harry could tell it was not Hedwig, but a brown and grey barn owl, and his hopes sank.

As Harry took the cream envelope with emerald writing from the owl, then watched it soar back out again, he knew already what it contained. Pulling open the flap, he slid out the familiar to sheets of paper.

_Dear Mr. Potter:_

_Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three quarters, at eleven o'clock._

_A list of books are included for the coming year._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Professor S. Snape_

Harry stared at the parchment, confused. Snape never sent out the start-of-term notices; it was always Professor McGonagall. Harry was curious as to what could have kept the deputy headmistress from sending out the notices, but he found he was extremely tired, and falling back on the pillows, he dozed a fitful and unsatisfying sleep, filled with green flashes, high laughter, and a fluttering curtain.

When Harry awoke to sunlight streaming in his window, he noticed Hedwig was back, asleep in her cage.

"Hedwig!" Harry jumped out of bed and rushed over to her cage. Stroking the owl's soft feathers, he noticed three envelopes on his desk, by Hedwig's cage. When he opened the first one, he was not surprised to see a letter from one of his two best friends, Ron.

Dear Harry,

Happy birthday! Sorry there's not present–almost all the shops in Diagon Alley are closed due to safety precautions. I owe you double next year. How are the muggles? Don't let them push you around! I wish you could come and visit us, but, um . . . well, Mum and Dad don't really want you around. They think you'd be a danger to our house, though I'm not supposed to tell you that. I don't see how. They already have as many safety enchantments around Hermione and mine's houses as they do around the Dursleys'. Sorry Harry–I can't help it when my parents are gits.

Your friend,

Ron

P.S. Are you going to be in Diagon Alley the week before school starts? They're going to open all the shops for school supplies. Come if you can! You don't want to have to order all your books by mail.

Harry gazed sadly at the letter. Now his best friend's parents didn't want him around, too fearful he would put their family in danger.

As Harry was about to open the next letter, there were two pops behind him. He whirled around and saw none other than Remus Lupin and Severus Snape. Before Harry could say anything, Snape said sharply, "Pack your things." Lupin said hurriedly to Snape, "I'll get the other three," and rushed out of the room without so much as one look at Harry. Harry meanwhile stood confused.

"What's going on–"

"Get your things!" Snape shouted, and for the first time in his life, Harry saw a glimmer of fear on the Professor's face.

Harry strode over to the closet, dragged out his trunk, and began shoving things in.

"I would have thought you'd have enough sense to keep a trunk ready for a time like this," Snape sneered. He waved the wand in his hand and immediately Harry's belongings flew into Harry's trunk. Harry did have enough sense to grab the three letters and throw them in, too, before the trunk slammed shut and locked. Snape levitated the trunk and started to walk out of the bedroom with it in front of him.

"Get your owl and follow me," he snarled, striding out of the room.

Harry grabbed Hedwig's cage and quickly followed Snape down the stairs into the living room where Lupin and the three Dursleys' were waiting. His uncle, Vernon Dursley, was looking furious with a bright red face under his voluminous mustache and clenched fists, yet fearful at the same time; his aunt, Petunia Dursley, was wearing an expression of confusion and fear; and his chubby cousin, Dudley, looked as though he was extremely annoyed and didn't look as though he had any idea what was happening, or cared for that matter. Each had a suitcase by their feet.

Snape dropped his hand with the wand, and Harry's trunk crashed to the floor. He walked over to the window, pulled away the curtains, and looked outside, as though expecting someone.

His uncle roared at him, "Boy! What's going on? Who are these nutters? Where are we going–"

Lupin interrupted him. "Sorry, but we need to get a move on. Now, we're traveling by the Floo Network. Listen carefully. We don't have much time. Step into the fireplace, take a handful of floo powder," he gestured at the jar he was holding, "say very, VERY clearly, 'Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,' then drop the floo powder at your feet. Got it?"

Mr. Dursley began to object. "Now wait just a minut–"

Snape, who had been gazing out the window the entire time, as though expecting someone, finally spoke. He stalked over and in his deadliest, iciest voice, said to Mr. Dursley, "Sir, if you would like to stay here and wait for them, you may. I would have only the deepest regrets for you that they would not kill you instantly, but torture you to insanity."

There was a long, shocking silence in the room. Mr. Dursley was silent from then on.

Lupin finally spoke. "Ok, we really don't have a lot of time! You all are in danger!" Lupin pointed at Mrs. Dursley. "You first." She hesitated, then walked over to the fireplace, walked in, took a handful of floo powder, spoke the words, and within seconds was gone. Lupin pointed at Dudley, and soon he was gone, too, with Mr. Dursley right after.

"Go now Harry. Hurry," Lupin said, and you could not miss the urgency in his voice.

Suddenly the door burst open with a flash of purple light.

"GO!" Lupin shouted, and pushed Harry into the fireplace. He held out the floo powder and Harry quickly took a handful.

"Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" said Harry, dropping the floo powder. The last thing he saw was Lupin's terrified face and Snape shouting,"Stupefy!" at one of the two cloaked figures that had burst in the house.

When Harry tumbled out of the fireplace, the first thing he noticed was a group of people, back to back in a circle of which the Dursleys' were in the center. They all had their wands trained on him, but when they saw it was Harry, one person rushed forward and pushed him in the center with the Dursleys', who, like Harry, were covered with soot. The entire group stood anxiously with bated breath, and Harry just remembered the phrase,'the tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife,' when out of the fireplace plunged Remus Lupin, and following him, Professor Snape. One of the wizards in the circle immediately said, "Nixentranium!" and Harry saw what appeared to be a faint shimmering over the fireplace that seemed to bond together.

"That's it. Now one can get into the school now," said the wizard, who had cast the spell.

Lupin seemed to have been breathing rather heavily, but at this he relaxed, and turned to Harry with a smile.

"Well, Harry, I guess your summer vacation was cut a little short."


End file.
